The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock- Tomorrow, In a Year

Add date: March 9th
Artist: The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock
Album: Tomorrow, In a Year
Label: Mute
Genre: Electronic, opera, typical Knife craziness multipled by 100

I was initially super excited to see The Knife releasing work after a too-long hiatus (that spawned the greatness that is Fever Ray), only to find out that this is a 90 minute opera about Charles Darwin and “Origin of Species”. Say wha? (Also, neither member of the Knife sings on the album, giving vocal duties to their collaborators and various trained opera singers). Here’s a breakdown of the album:

-First 10 mins: dripping faucet and weird buzzing.
-50% of album: operatic howling over grinding industrial noises.
-15%: actual Amazon field recordings of birds/rain taken by these crazy Swedes (“Letters to Henslow”, which feature said bird noises AND the Dreijer siblings, in one of their only vocal turns, making whooping noises)
-10%: a few ambient stunners like the graceful “Ebb Tide Explorer”, which features undulating waves of sound that reflect the sway of the seaweed being described.
-10%: Epic, yet beautiful 10 minute tracks like "Colouring of Pigeons" or the bouncy "Seeds"

This is an interesting and ambitious project, but this 90 minute concept album needs to be listened to in its entirety and doesn’t lend itself well to the radio format. The problem is also that the second disc is enormously better than the first. I get the point- the first CD is meant to evoke the beginnings of life and the formation of the earth- but it’s the type of music you can’t just throw on in the background and not focus on. By the second disc, we’ve arrived at the human era in the timeline of evolution, and it’s not coincidental that the songs are much better.
A band as excellent as The Knife should not be backtracking so much at this point in their career: song “Heartbeats” is a classic 2000s indie love anthem and 2006’s critically acclaimed album Silent Shout shows the band at the top of their game. In considering their oeuvre thus far, let’s consider Tomorrow, In a Year as an ambitious one-off project, and hope for a better album next time.